Unilever Company Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Unilever Company - Essay Example The current nonexecutive director of the dual companies is Michael Treschow while the chief executive of the company is Paul Polman. The company has a sizeable slice in London stock exchange and has a rank of the eighteenth position in the stock exchange as at the close of 2011 (Murphy 2009). Back ground information Unilever Company began its operations at the start of 1930. The pioneers include Samuel Bergh, Antonius Johannes Jurgen and William Lever. This was through the amalgamation of two businesses, where the British soap makers who were the Level brothers came together with the Dutch margarine producer who was Margarine Unie in 1927. The amalgamation of the two companies was strategic in terms of the commercial benefit it would provide. This is basing on the fact that, for the production of margarine and soaps, there would be a requirement of palm oil thus the importation of palm oil, which was a key raw material, would be fast and in large quantities. This would help reduce th e number of times the product would require transportation as well as reduce the custom taxes due to importation. The palm oil in use by the companies was from Belgian Congo, where they had procurement of seven fifty thousand hectares of the forest land from where there was the extraction of palm oil. This was by labourers whose working conditions were poor as well as the labourers getting low pay. At the beginning of 1930, the Unilever business empire went global opening branches in Latin America and Africa where the initial business had taken root. During the year, there was acquiring of restraints so as to increase the company’s operations, soon after acquiring the shares, there was the sale of shares by the management so as to make an expansion in the operations of the business. By then the company was making edible fats and soaps leading to much income by the business. The purchasing of the Chesebrough-pond’s company, there was strengthening of Unilever Company. T he expansion of the Company was due to purchasing of Calvin Klein Company that was in the making of Cosmetics as well as the Farbege and Elizabeth Arden companies. The expansion has led to making of a headquarters for all its operation worldwide which is in London. The name rises up fully in the 1990s, and getting a complete charter and becoming the Unilever Company (Wilson 2009). Issues in staffing and training and development The company has the right staffing solution. To get a preview on this, there is consideration of the various issues that the company has put into place including; compliance where the employees sign contracts that show there compliance in working towards a common goal for the well being of the business. Compliance is essential for the development of the organisation in that the employees know what the management requires thus works hard to comply with the standards of the company set by the management. Another issue is retention where the company retains the working conditions of the company, by ensuring that the employees work in an able environment thus they do not have to move to other fields. Retention of their initial name and logo has come ensures that the company